A history of the "the Democratic Party has been hijacked by extremists" argument

Same as it ever was.

May 04, 2022

∙ Paid

Digging through old newspapers is one of my favorite hobbies. I just love what they can tell us about not just the past, but the present and the future, as well. I follow Twitter accounts like Pessimists Archive and Yesterday’s Print, keep up with historians on Twitter, and of course, keep an active newspapers.com subscription up and running.

With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that I took a bit of inspiration from Seth Cotlar, who teaches history at Willamette University, and his Twitter thread about discourse over whether or not the Democratic Party has moved “too far to the left.”

Seth Cotlar @SethCotlar

"So busy have the media been in clucking & brooding over all those religious fanatics and conservative extremists in the Republican Party that they have not taken note that the Democratic Party has been hijacked by radical extremists of the far left." --Modesto Bee, 2 August 2000

Cotlar was responding to a tweet from richest-man-on-the-planet-and-potential-owner-of-Twitter Elon Musk, who wrote, “I strongly supported Obama for President, but today’s Democratic Party has been hijacked by extremists.”

Elon Musk @elonmusk

@waitbutwhy I strongly supported Obama for President, but today’s Democratic Party has been hijacked by extremists

The point being made by Cotlar in his thread is that such claims have been made throughout history, usually taking the form of poorly argued and factually challenged claims. I wanted to use today’s newsletter as an opportunity to argue back against the idea by simply highlighting how far back this “the Democratic Party has been hijacked by extremists!” language goes.